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The theme of the week was BOOKS! Our local homeschool group had our used book sale. I was a seller, shopper, and volunteer. What a great morning! The sheer number of books and homeschooling moms in one place would give you the shivers... most people I saw had a glazed-over look as they entered the gym... so much potential learning crammed into one tiny space!

{ I was so busy organizing books and searching for books that I forgot to take a single picture! I did take some as I tagged my books... see what a neat spreadsheet system we had this year? I just entered my books into the spreadsheet and the tags were automatically created. }

I'm also so very thankful for our local homeschool group and how hard so many people work to make events like this possible!

As you can see, I got a lot of the classics, a wonderful art game, and our next volume of The Story of The World (in mint condition!). Lots of the books I bought aren't pictured, either! The break down was as follows:

Amount Made at Book Sale (by me): $77.00

Amount Spent at Book Sale (by me): $25.00

________

Profit (for ME!) : $52.00

We also grabbed a few books at our local library's book sale, as well. Paperbacks were .50 and hardbacks were $1.00. I had $10 in my wallet and let the kids go to town with the $10 limit. They did great. So, all in all a great book week!

On to the collages. From left to right:

1. Two exciting things happened this week. I got a new laptop (which will be wonderful all things blogging, homeschool, etc...). My husband took me to "look" on Sunday and I loved one so much I said "Can't we just get it today?". My husband said he was planning to surprise me for Mother's Day -- my response was "I'm not one for those Hallmark holidays in the first place, so why not just make it Mother's Day all year round?" (I'm pretty clever, right?)

You will also see the website on the computer is "In a Nutshell". This is a blog run by About One ~ I am writing a couple of posts a month for this site now. I have never thought of myself as a "writer" per se, but I'm now adding that word to my self descriptive vocabulary.

2. My daughter's favorite book from the past few weeks is Knight's Castle. She finished it this week and then I (the mean mother) required a book report. We've been having some motivation (ahem) issues around here. I understand this is age related, but we must keep pressing through and keeping our expectations high. Interest Led Learning is great, but you have to have INTERESTS to make that possible. I'm gently suggesting interests! We think so much about moms losing motivation in these spring months, but I think the same goes for our children as well.

* I do have to say that Miss B has expressed an interest to learn about England, so I think I'm going to put together an Adventure Box about England and let her explore.

3. GMan is going strong with his piano lessons from me. I wondered how he would do when we first started and he has amazed me... loving to practice and a very natural sense of the steady beat and musicality. It is my greatest joy to hear both of my children practice each day. (Do you remember what I said about piano lessons?)

4. Both kids have still been a bit under the weather this week. I've been trying to make lots of healthy smoothies for them. The favorite this week was the Cinnapear Smoothie!

1. I have a very neat spice cabinet. (It is probably one of the only neat places!) Guess what? It was a lesson in ALPHABETICAL ORDER!

2. After doing three chapters in The Story of The World this week we read Who Was Marco Polo?. I love all of the "Who Was" books and this one was no different. While I was reading my little guy hopped up next to me on the sofa with his LEGO bow he had made ... that stinker built a Mongolian Composite Bow. I adore homeschooling.

3. Another history picture - map work of Marco's journeys across Europe and Asia.

Our favorite resource this week was a series of videos we discovered at the library. Countries Around The World are short videos that take children throughout a country - and they are guided by another child. We have watched Iceland, and checked out United Kingdom and Italy (in honor of Marco Polo).

All in all it was a good week... trying to get my little guy feeling better after walking pneumonia and just tying up loose ends of the school year kept us at home most of the week and not doing anything "fun". Next week I'll be the fun mom - I kind of missed her this week.

I had an email from my own mom this week that praised me for doing a good job with my own children and told me to keep up the good work on my blog. That praise meant so much to me... and in an instant I realized what it feels like to be one of my children... how much they crave praise and how they must feel when they get it from me (which isn't enough).

How was your homeschool week? Please feel free to link with me... no formal collages necessary, just a compilation of photos that tell the story of your adventures in learning.

As always, please grab my button from the sidebar or link back to this post in some way. Please visit the person who has linked ahead of you to offer encouragement and gain ideas.